How can we restore data on freespace and other project pages?

Question

On the "changes" page of a Wikitree Profile, a sentence appears: "If serious mistakes were made, you can restore data from as it was (time), (date)"  One simple mouse click and it's all fixed!

It seems that this "restore data tool" does not work on Freespace pages, as the foregoing sentence does not appear when you access the "changes" page.

A recent experience occurred whereby the major part of a  Project (Freespace) page containing extensive text and a sortable table (containing several hundred names and associated dates) was accidentally deleted.

There was no access to a "one-click" restoration and, although the basic text was able to be retrieved, (by copying from the changes page and pasting into the Freespace page), the Table cannot be readily copied and pasted without the unwanted inclusion of thousands of + and - symbols inserted into the Table, each of which has to be deleted - one by one.

The potential for loss of data and/or formatting from Freespace pages and the damage to Project Pages, Category Pages, etc., is scary to say the least.

Is it possible to extend the use of  the "restore data tool" to allow correction and/or restoration of lost or damaged data to all Wikitree pages, not just profiles?

 

BTW, A very, very big vote of thanks to Terry Wright for her painstaking efforts over many days to reconstruct and restore the Project Page, most of which went missing (AWOL).

(In excess of 2,400 mouse clicks, not just one!)

 

Comments

Peter, I added this here for consideration: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/To-Do#Other

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Thanks Eowyn, at least the subject hasn't totally disappeared.

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Peter, the next time you encounter a need to remove stray “text” such as + and - signs, I suggest the material be first pasted into a word-processor so the search and replace function can be used to replace the + and - with (no text/null), that is, do not enter anything as the replacement “text”. I've used the method to edit documents in excess of 350 pages with success.

You may need to experiment a bit to ensure you are not eliminating text you want retained at specific points within the document.

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Normally a WikiMedia based wiki has a built in change history, with complete and exact rollback possible for any and all changes.  This wiki is different, customized, standard wiki commands hidden, but I wonder if it only needs a module or some newer WikiMedia code to be added, to provide full rollback capabilities.

On the Changes page, if you hover over the "edit the Text" link, you can see the standard WikiMedia parameters (e.g. &diff=57570802&oldid=51106149), which would imply that there's a way to exactly restore a previous version of the page (the one associated with 'oldid').

Answer 1

I've just had a similar experience with the loss of data on a free space page, my laptop froze whilst saving an edit which resulted in a couple of hours work getting the page back to how it was. (I used the same method as Peter).

Is this request still on the To-Do list?, and if so maybe it can be escalated. If it's been on the list now for over 2 years, it must be getting nearer the top.